


Travelling Light

by SunnyD_lite



Category: The Sentinel
Genre: Gen, Post The Debt, Preseries, Sentinel Too
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-06-27
Updated: 2010-06-27
Packaged: 2017-10-10 07:23:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 583
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/97141
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SunnyD_lite/pseuds/SunnyD_lite
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>We all have our baggage, even when it's a lack of baggage.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Travelling Light

**Author's Note:**

> For the Tamingthemuse prompt Chattels.   
> I own nothing! For fun, not profit.

"Things are chains, sweetie."

Chattels was what she called them. Material goods just drain your life force, was what she said when I was watching commercials on someone else's television. Collecting was taking things away from the universe, so match box cars and comics were all short lived items. She trained me to travel light. It was what we did. Sometimes we had a carful of stuff, sometimes just what we could carry. An English Class had given me a phrase from Naomi's technique: for all her independence, Naomi did seem to rely on the kindness of strangers. But it worked.

I didn't even know there was an option until I went on an excursion with other undergrads. I'd packed a big and little knapsack. Half of the others had an entire luggage set, each. Who needed mousse and hair dryers in the jungle? Naomi's basics were three outfits, extra socks, toiletries, and two precious items. My items had changed through the years. I no longer needed Mr. Puddles, or an Encyclopedia Brown book. Now I carried the Burton Monograph and my engraved Swiss Army Knife. My future and past, what else was needed?

 

"Detach with love."

That must have been Naomi's favourite saying. She certainly did it enough. The nomadic life style stuck with me as I ended up changing address every couple of semesters. Funny how she'd always chosen when to detach. Not even Naomi would have had a meth lab make that decision for her when it went boom like a summer blockbuster. Awashed in the patterns of police lights, I looked up at my most recent abode. With a few cleansing breaths, I coughed out the smoke and counted my blessing. Larry was safe, and I'd just done a back up of my research which I stored in my office. Plus I'd left a couple of loads of clothes at the laundromat's pick up service. Everything else could be replaced. Or remembered.

I had my memories, and on the up side, I no longer had to worry about the rats. And when I turned up at Jim's loft, it wasn't like there was a lot to carry. Not that I'd bring smoke soaked items into a Sentinel's home. Things were just ties to the past, ways of weighing you down and man, my future was starting right now.

"That's it, Sandburg?" Ellison's cold stare took in the few boxes I'd scavenged from liquor stores.

"Hey man, I'm here with you and Larry. That's all I need!"

 

Boxed Up

No amount of cleansing breathing exercises could help me through this. Trust Jim to even pile unwanted nuisances in a military fashion. I stood for a few minutes wondering at my own hubris as I stared at the visible manifestation of my own hypocrisy. I told the world I traveled light, but the wall in front of me gave lie to that belief. Chattels – movable items not affixed to real estate. For so long that's what I'd been, but I had thought...

I'd thought wrong. Neither my stuff, nor myself was 'affixed' anywhere, to anyone.

"There's always another adventure, sweetie. You never know when something better will come along." That had been a maxim of my youth. But you see, I didn't want better. I didn't want to travel light. I didn't want to travel at all.

And Jim wanted me gone.

With a sigh I lift the first box and moved on.

_   
**FIC: Travelling Light The Sentinel G 1/1**   
_


End file.
